Everything you wanted to know about clone brands...

I hate it when I see LEGO copies, I really hate Decool, they can't even come up with there own designs for sets.-_-

Clones are growing on me. Personally I've tried a few Enlighten train cars, 3 Decool big technic cars (The Fiorano and the 1:8 F1 car, and the black SUV) and the Bela Enzo. I got to build cars that last I looked were on ebay for $300 each for about $40 each. I should do formal reviews on them but I'm a slacker.

Have an Ausini train on the way to try out next. Not expecting the minifigures to be any good, but for the price it will cost-effectively add to my Train collection.

Don't get things wrong, this month I spent $80 on the clone train set, $200 on vintage Lego trains, and $200 on some non-train new releases this month, Lego themselves is getting plenty of my money.

It's always entertaining to read this. :D

Anthony, if you're reading this: give me a shout if you want to include some of my clone purchases in the next release. I've posted pictures of a Weagle fire truck that appears to be a clone of a clone; it's a copy of a Sluban set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/duq/sets/72157641134062945/
Since those pictures I've found a third version of the same set, this time made by Block Tech. Haven't taken pictures yet but it's just as awful as Weagle...

best laugh i've had in a good long while :))

The only real competitor Lego should be worried about is Mega Bloks, and even then, only if they ship outside of China and North America.

I liked the tank girls portion.

That's a really cool website; thanks for sharing it! I hate almost all LEGO clones but there is one that has sucked me in with their minifig blind bag series, and that is the Kreo: GI Joe one. They're doing a great job producing some really interesting iconic GI Joe characters from my youth. The fact that they've committed to a 4th series of the blind bags is cool. I just wish they weren't Toys R Us exclusives. And, of course, I wish they were LEGO but we know their stance on military themes, so that's that.

For some reason I had this feeling that Huw really dislike clones... a lot.

Ironically, recent Lego sets from China have the worse quality ever, and at the same time I see clone brands keep improving their standard.

With TLG opening more and more China factories having lower quality standards and at the same time trying all means to increase their profit margin, I don't see the situation improving.

This will drive up the prices even higher for the old sets since they are of better quality, in addition to their rarity of course.

These poor clones just hurt my eyes to look at them. Personally I can't stand clone or knock offs imitations of Lego. They are just awful...not to mention unsafe.

I recently bought a few of the Mario Kart K'Nex kits...thoroughly unpleasant, the instructions are terrible, the brick built elements are horribly unstable, used STAMP in the worst possible ways. But they were massively reduced and the figures are ok so I think the small amount I paid was worthwhile for a couple of thwamps, a Mario, a Luigi, a Koopa Trooper, a Yoshi, a couple of motorised cars that I think are fairly Lego comparable, a Power star and a mushroom. Had they been retail price I'd have not gone anywhere near them, but that lot in the £20ish region...and the K'Nex elements I think Ill be able to use for some 'Lego' scaffolding for a project next year, not too shabby!

I thoroughly love this brave work and laugh every time it updates. Chinese brands do make some cool Marvel minifigs though...

I recently got angry when my sister in law started buying those clone sets for my nephew instead of real Lego, she claimed it was because Lego was 'too expensive'. I said, 15.00 is too expensive for you to spend on your kid? I then took it upon myself too show her the quality of the Lego product, I bought him 4 Lego sets for his birthday and 2 just for the hell of it.
The next day, she came too me to apologise, saying that they had helped him put the sets together with him (he is only 5) and not only was the quality far superior then the Clone sets, they had a lot more detail, and that they enjoyed putting them together as a family.
Clones will never rival nor beat Lego, they are cheap sets that people buy because they don't understand the difference between LEGO and Clones. That is my rant. Thank You.

Ah, this site... it never fails to make me fall out of my seat laughing. I've also found a favorite new line:

"The box art suggests fire in close proximity. This is something that may well be tested in the future."

That one with the CACK award is just such an utter failure it not only belongs in the trash, those blocks belong smashed in a food processor, burned to a crisp, buried in a skunk nest for three months, mixed with gasoline, used to incinerate the box, and finally put into a vacuum container with 2 tons of rotten fish and jettisoned into space, than reeled back in due to atmospheric pollution and buried in the Earth's mantle.

I pity those poor rotten fish.

That was absolutely hilarious. If I am ever in a bad mood I am going to pull that document back up and read it again. For those of you defending clone brands, there is no need. Actually take a look at the document and you will find there are both good (in some cases REALLY good) and bad examples. The bad examples are unbelievably bad.

A good laugh and well written. Star Diamond stands out as a beacon of quality among all the dross. I actually have some, and it's indistinguishable quality-wise from Lego. Only some of the colours are slightly different shades. If that's ever imported officially to the West, it'll kill Mega Bloks and Lego itself would have it's first worthy competitor.

That was a fun read, especially now that I know that 'pants' is UK slang for rubbish/garbage/junk/crap.

The KREO set needs a lowered score. A good chunk of the one I had (when they first came out) was missing.

Thanks to Huw for posting this. Glad to see it has produced some enjoyment.

I see that duq has considerable restraint in having both a Sluban and Weagle fire engine that have not been set on fire, so thanks for that. I am also in awe of the angry writing skills shown by Mr picnicbasket, to which I can only attempt to approach. I suspect that the pants Weagle engine may have to be subject to an independent consumer flame safety test at some point, but I regret that the UK is rather devoid of skunks, and apparently there is a queue to package stuff on Elon Musk's finest products. I blame those PeiZhi mercenaries.

I can't find any of the dodgy superhero figures locally. I even tried to source some clone Friends off eBay from Hong Kong, but they turned out to be real ones (factory seconds?). All are now set reading the Conplan 8888 Counter Zombie Dominance manual.

Thank you, Mr. Tomkins! Yes, sometimes I can tack a lot of things into a sentence. I thought that an amount of destruction for that CACK-award winner was deserving for something that awful!
I'm in the US, where we have lots of skunks, rotten fish, and rocket launchpads. I don't think the ISS could really be deployed to save those rotten fish, though. I blame PeiZhi too.
(Question: What is Elon Musk?)
I'm usually not angry, just rather annoyed. Kind of often.

I really enjoyed reading about the clone stuff. I was almost tempted to go out and buy some just to see how really rubbish it was for myself. But I've stopped myself and will save the money for something that will give more enjoyment for longer - such as a bag of crisps.

And if I every win the lottery I will spend part of the winnings on buying some of these clone sets and taking the suspicious brown material to a public laboratory for testing.

Elon Musk is an inventor and entrepreneur who founded Tesla motor company (electric cars), and currently is CEO of SpaceX, a company that does privately funded space travel. He's one of the richest people in the world.

Ah. Thanks, natro.

I'm thinking that Best-Lock would also make a good candidate for space launch.

Some of the cloners make a model of the Long March space rocket. I'm thinking field, amateur rocketry parts, video camera...

On a more serious note, there are a few of these guys who might just make it as a rival in the next few years. Star Diamond are one obvious candidate, but Ausini are almost there, and Jubilux have good bricks, if terrible looking figs. And I do admit to buying up PeiZhi military sets to get a Russian attack squad - although they get BrickArms ushankas and AK47s. I will probably try to build a T-90 out of the PeiZhi and BanBao parts, eventually.

Haha no way, *another* huge update? You rule, Anthony. Thank you for the hours of fun.

What annoys me is when im looking for lego on ebay - there so many copy figures - no im not interested in buying a hulk figure for £3.99 from china!

However If you want a laugh - check out ashens reviews on youtube of this non lego - there is some swearing but they are well worth a look.

I once had a clone police car (I don't know the company), that managed to combine the emergency numbers from UK and US, so on the side of the door it said 'call 919'.

I think cloning Lego is one of the most ridiculous ways of making money. It's such a stupid business to go in to, because it's so heavily dominated. I think Lego should try to put a stop to these atrocities.
Funny report though...

yes i can see where people would have their probelems but there is some sides that people don't see as well when it comes to copies.

there are alot of lego purists and that is okay but alot of the people who are commenting live in areas that have the means and ability to be able to afford thing that some people in other countries can't.

there is alot of people who can not afford things like legos b.c if their standard of living. what would a person rather do buy something or go with out food or shelter?

it is easy for people when they don't think that there are families that live off of less than most people who make minimum wage in the united states. the average minimum wage last year for china wad just a little over 2k a year.

so think of it you get 2000 a year, compared to an average minimum wage working in the u.s. which is about 15000.

that is china alone there are some that are worse off, i would like to see how people fare on that and try and buy legos, not going to happen.

i hate clones yes but in a way it is good it helps the actual poor families have something, and lets kids no matter what have a chance to enjoy although it may not be the real thing but sometimes people who do without still appreciate what they can get.

The quality of the Chinese makes have been exponentially improving over the last ten years. Aside from obvious imitations of existing LEGO lines (e.g. Marvel Superheroes), some of them such as military battle tanks are really great to have. Not just the Leopard 2 and M1 Abrams by Mega Bloks, but some of the Chinese domestic brands' too.

To provide some perspective, Chinese brands such as Cobi had been around for years before they began going onto Ebay, and then eventually pushing LEGO off retail shelf spaces. Their key target market has always been domestic, and will continue to remain so. Rivele already pointed out why above, so I need not elaborate.